John Heilemann on Scott Brown's Vote

Republican Senator Scott Brown's vote for a Democratic
jobs bill surprised supporters, and spurred predictions about future bipartisanship. Some began to speculate
that Brown--hailed as the destroyer of health care and Democrats'
filibuster-proof majority--could even prove a boon to the White
House.

But John Heilemann
knew all that a week ago. In a February 14 piece for New York
Magazine, Heilemann observed that "For all the tea-party atmospherics
around the Massachusetts race, there are plenty
of indications that Brown is hardly a right-wing loony, and even some
signs that he might be--wait for it--an honest-to-goodness northeastern
moderate right out of the old school." In fact, Heilemann argued that far from being Brown the Democratic Death-Knell, Brown "should be the ripest of targets for
bi-partisan appeals in the Senate."

Heilemann all but predicted Brown's jobs bill vote, and beat today's commentators to the conclusion that Democrats shouldn't count on Brown except when his polls numbers are threatened. As Heilemann wrotes, "on the critical issues of
2010, unless his own poll numbers begin to plummet, Brown seems likely
to be another brick in the Republican wall of opposition." That's precisely what bloggers wound up deciding post-vote.

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